SRINAGAR: Ghulam Mohammad Saznawaaz, a Kashmiri maestro, has been named for the prestigious Padmashree award on the occasion of 64th Republic Day.
Son of a musician, 70-year old Saznawaaz is the senior most living ‘Ustad’ of Sufiyana Mosiqi (music of mystics), a centuries-old traditional music and dance drawn from sufism, now dying out fast in Kashmir.
Among the 108 personalities from various fields who have been have been selected for the Padmashree awards, three including Saznawaaz hail from Jammu and Kashmir.
“Saznawaz has been selected in art category, theatre director Balwant Thakur in art category while Rajendra Tikku got it in art category,” an official statement said.
Many of the instruments used in the sufiyaana Mosiqi, a style of choral music performed by four to five musicians, each playing an instrument and singing, face extinction.
Saze kashmir, a violin-like instrument has only one living exponent left in all of Kashmir, Saznawaz.
While expressing his happiness over being named for the Padmashree award, Saznawaz said he hoped other measures would be taken to preserve his legacy.
“I wish government came to rescue of this rich dying art,” he rued.
